Expulsion of Greeks from Istanbul

The expulsion of Istanbul Greeks in 1964-1965 was a series discriminatory measures by the authorities of the Republic of Turkey that aimed at the forced deportation of the Greek population of Istanbul (Greek: Κωνσταντινούπολη Constantinople). Though the Greeks of Istanbul were initially excluded from the Greek-Turkish population exchange of 1923 and were allowed to remain in their native city the Turkish government took a series of measures that virtually resulted in its dramatic decrease; such as the "wealth" tax of 1942 and latter the anti-Greek pogrom of September 1955. Especially during the 1950s and 1960s the Greek minority was used as an apparatus of pressure for the Cyprus issue as part of the Greek-Turkish relations. The anti-Greek measures of 1964-1965 resulted in the drastic decline of the Greeks in Istanbul. As such from c. 80,000 only a population of 30,000 remained in 1965. Those measures also resulted in the appropriation of minority owned properties by the Turkish state and where accompanied by restrictions in the field of religion and education. The expulsion of this period was part of the final phase of state measures that aimed at the turkification of the local economic, social and cultural life.

Background

Precentage of Greek minority in Istanbul (1955) and the main targets of Istanbul pogrom.

A long term policy of ethnic cleansing and turkification of the economy was already implemented from 1908 by the local Ottoman authorities. Such tendencies continued after the Greek-Turkish population exchange of 1923 against the remaining Greek communities; the "wealth" tax of 1942 and the pogrom of 1955.

Already from the 1955 pogrom the Turkish government used the local Greek minority in Istanbul as a tool of pressure for the Cyprus issue. As part of this context Turkey decided again to use the Greeks of Istanbul in early 1960s, while the government of Ismet Inönü and the local press launched a campaign for the justification of the premeditated expulsion of Istanbul Greeks.

From 1963 Turkey was found in diplomatic isolation while NATO and CENTO, organizations in which it was a member, refused to support the Turkish claims for Cyprus. At March 16, 1964, Turkey unilaterally denounced the Greek-Turkish Convention of Establishment, Commerce and Navigation of 1930, thus marking the beginning of a massive exodus. Though Turkish authorities initially claimed that the expulsions were directed towards specific individuals that displayed activities "dangerous to the internal and external security of Turkey", the Turkish government spokesperson, Mümtaz Soysal, later admitted that:

Unless the Greek government changed its attitude in regard to the question of Cyprus, all the Greek nationals in Istanbul might be expelled en masse.

Population affected

These measures immediately affected more than 10,000 ethnic Greeks that held Greek passports and were allowed to remain in Turkey under the terms of the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), the subsequent Greek-Turkish population exchange as well as the Greek-Turkish agreement of 1930. Those Greeks, though holding Greek passports, lived in Istanbul before 1918 and their descendants were born in Turkey but had acquired Greek citizenship while some of them had never been in Greece before. Nevertheless, with the Turkeys' unilateral abrogation they were obliged to leave the country immediately. Since a large part of them were married with co-ethnics that had Turkish citizenship this exodus inevitably affected a much higher number.

The first wave of expulsion included businessmen and in general members of the community supposed to have conducted activities detrimental to the Turkish state. On March 24, 1964, the first list of Greek deportees was published in Turkish newspapers and five days later the expulsion of the first families took place. The following months (April-August 1964) c. 5,000 expulsions occurred while another 10,000-11,000 Greeks were expelled after September 1964. On October 11, 1964, the Turkish newspaper, Cumhuriyet, reported that 30,000 Turkish nationals of Greek descent had also left permanently Turkey. In total the Greek community of Istanbul was reduced from c. 80,000 to c. 30,000 in 1965 as a result of this state campaign of massive expulsion.

Among those expelled were several distinguished businessmen in long established commercial institutions that provided employment to both Greeks and Turks. As a result of the expulsions c. 100 businesses had to close down. The state authorities also expelled -allegedly due to anti-Turkish activity- handicapped and crippled persons as well as mentally sick and individuals that suffered from incurable diseases, even people that had passed away some years ago.

Restrictions

Fundamental human rights violations

The deportees were informed about their expulsion order by police officers either at their home or workplace. Then they were transferred to the "Greek Department" at the police headquarters of Istanbul and forced to sign a document in which they had to admit a number of charges as well as that they "...consented to leave Turkey of their own will". They were allowed to take only 220 Turkish Lira (c. 22 US dollars of that time) with them as well as a single piece of luggage not weighing more than 20 kilograms (710 oz) for their clothes.

The expulsions also aimed at the virtual confiscation of the property of those expelled. As such it was forbidden to take any of their belongings made of valuable materials. Moreover, a Turkish ministerial decree also prohibited all Greeks from conducting transactions of their houses or any other property and their bank accounts were blocked. Banks were also instructed to refuse any loans to businesses entirely or partly owned by Greeks. Another ministerial decree ordered the seizure of all real estate property and bank accounts belonging to Greek citizens while all Greek citizens were prohibited from acquiring property in Turkey.

Anti-Greek campaign in press

The Greek community was also widely targeted by the Turkish press as a potential enemy of the state and "exploiter" of the Turkish economy. Wide scale use of aggressive language and hate speech against Greeks was quite typical in contemporary Turkish media promoting the concept that the expulsions were conducted to avoid imminent dangers for the Turkish nation. Typical headings in Turkish press referred to Greeks as "genetically flawed and ruthless blood-shedders" and "the evil, historical enemy of Turks". Turkish newspapers frequently published lists and tables including the names, professions and personal details of those that were to be expelled thus turning them open targets and victims of lynching campaigns by fanatical mobs. At April 14, 1964, Turkish student organizations joined this anti-Greek campaign. Their common declaration was published in the front cover of almost all Istanbul newspapers:

Great Turkish Nation: keeping in mind that each lira they earn by exploiting you, will turn out to be arms directed at your brethren in Cyprus, the best thing you can do in the service of Turkishhood is to cut off all business with those exploiting us economically . . . . In this period of economic warfare, if you do not wish to be the slaves of world nations, become a volunteer in this campaign

Persecution of religion and education

The Prinkipo Greek Orphanage (picture of 2015) was forced to seize its function as a result of the state measures of 1964.

The Greek-Orthodox Church and in particular the local Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople were also targeted by the authorities and the press being typically described as an "unwelcomed residue of Greek influence" in Turkey. The printing house of the Patriarchate -operating since 1672- was closed down under the pretext that its function was a supposed infringement of the Treaty of Lausanne and its religious publications were banned. Meanwhile, high ranking priests were immediately expelled due to allegations of involvement in subversive "political, administrative, educational and social activities", while all non-Turkish nationals that attended the Greek Orthodox Halki Seminary were also expelled from Turkey. The theology department of the seminary was closed down later in 1971.

Greek Orthodox clerics where prohibited from entering local Greek schools. On November 1964 the morning prayer was banned from Greek schools. The Turkish government also began refusing permission for the repair of dilapidated educational institutions. In contravention of the Lausanne Treaty, Greek elementary and secondary schools had to accept the appointment of Turkish assistant headmasters. On 15 September 1964, the authorities prohibited all books written in Greek inside the Greek schools of Istanbul and their libraries. Religious celebrations including Christmas and Easter were also forbidden inside schools. From December 1964 speaking Greek was also prohibited by Greek pupils during breaks. On 21 April 1964, the local authorities forcibly occupied and closed the Greek Orphanage of Büyükada (Prinkipos), thus depriving 165 orphans of their lodgings and education.

The complex of the Ecumenical Partiarchate was targeted by Turkish mobs in various instances in 1964-1965, as well as several Orthodox churches in Istanbul.

Additionally, throughout this period there were several incidents and attacks against Church property. In various instances, Turkish mobs attacked the Patriarchate and other religious monuments. In one case, at September 9, 1964, the Greek cemetery at Kuzguncuk was desecrated. The British Consul in Istanbul reported that:

he [the Patriarch] and his hierarchy, his churches, schools and seminaries, were continually subjected to vexatious harassments, sometimes of a major kind. None of his buildings are, for instance, allowed to be repaired or rebuilt

Reactions outside Turkey

As the expulsion policy became wide scale the Greek government asked for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council in September 1964. The president of the Council, Platon D. Morozov, as well as Soviet Union, condemned the "massive deportations". However, Western countries preferred to avoid any involvement against the ongoing expulsion policy.

Aftermatch

Greek population in Istanbul and percentages of the city population (1844–1997). Pogroms and policies in Turkey led virtually to the exodus of the remaining Greek community.

The exodus of Istanbul Greeks clearly pointed that co-existence of Muslims and Greek Orthodox in Istanbul that was ratified under the terms of the Treaty of Lausanne has completely failed. The expulsion had multiple and complex repercussions for Turkey in the fields of both domestic and foreign policy. It also struck an enormous blow to the concept of a pluralistic society in the country that would tolerate the presence of the remaining non-Muslim element. On the other hand it fuelled nationalist agitation and fervor on both Greece and Turkey and further deteriorated Greek-Turkish relations.

Those expelled found refuge mainly in Greece and in 1965 the "Society of the Greeks expelled from Turkey" was founded in Athens by prominent members of their diaspora. The exodus continued the following years with additional thousands of local Greeks leaving Istanbul in fear of losing their lives and property.

The ban on Greeks selling their property in Turkey was finally lifted in 1989 by Prime Minister Turgut Özal. This occurred after pressure exerted by the Council of the European Union in the context of Turkey's application to the European Union. However, the state authorities in Turkey are still imposing restrictions and appropriate minority properties through similar legal processes and continue to refuse Greek citizens to possess or inherit any kind of property. Similarly, donations by members of the Greek minority to non-Muslim minority institutions are considered property of the Turkish state. As a result of such policies of turkification several parts of Istanbul that had been predominantly inhabited by minorities were evacuated during the 1950s and 1960s and were fully abandoned and full of decaying buildings. Some of them were subsequently occupied by rural migrants who finally achieved ownership after a certain time period of uncontested occupation. Other were sold with unclear legal processes. Today Istanbul has lost its multicultural character being turned into a 99,99% Muslim occupied urban region.

Sources

• Alexandris, Alexis (1983). The Greek Minority of Istanbul and Greek-Turkish Relations, 1918-1974. Center for Asia Minor Studies.
• Arat, Zehra F. Kabasakal (January 2011). Human Rights in Turkey. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-0114-7.
• Kaliber, Alper (2019). "Re-engaging the Self/other Problematic in Post-positivist International Relations: The 1964 Expulsion of Greeks from Istanbul Revisited". Southeast European and Black Sea Studies. 19 (3): 365–386. doi:10.1080/14683857.2019.1651082. ISSN 1468-3857. S2CID 201349840. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
• Mills, Amy (2010). Streets of Memory: Landscape, Tolerance, and National Identity in Istanbul. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 9780820335735.
• Niarchos, Georgios (2005). "Between Ethnicity, Religion and Politics Foreign Policy and the Treatment of Minorities in Greece and Turkey, 1923-1974". London School of Economics and Political Science. hdl:10442/hedi/19135. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

Further reading

• Denying Human Rights and Ethnic Identity: The Greeks of Turkey (PDF). New York: Human Rights Watch. 1992. ISBN 1-56432-056-1. Retrieved 2 October 2020.